A group of Memphis D-Day veterans leave for Normandy, France on Monday, June 2, 2014.

June 2, 2014 - World War II veteran Phil Nicastro walks past members of the Patriot Guard Riders as he heads through the terminal at Memphis International Airport before traveling to Normandy, France alongside fellow veterans who fought in the D-Day battle in France during WWII. They will attend a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of D-Day's invasion of Normandy. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal)

June 2, 2014 — World War II veteran Bob Bedford (right) is greeted by Bill Ledford with the Patriot Guard Riders inside the terminal at Memphis International Airport before traveling to Normandy, France with fellow veterans who fought in the D-Day battle during WWII. They will attend a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of D-Day’s invasion of Normandy. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal)

The last time Phillip Nicastro went to France, he was a fit and fearless 17-year-old Navy machine-gunner in a 5,000-ship armada sent to rescue Europe from the Nazis.

"I wasn't scared of the devil back then," Nicastro said. "None of us were. We were all kids when we went to fight that war."

A few months before, Nicastro had boarded LST-495, a new transport ship laid down and launched in Evansville, Indiana.

LST stood for Large Ship Tanks, but sailors dubbed it a Large Slow Target. The 495 was designed to transport troops and tanks from shore to shore, not to fight.

The ship passed by Memphis on its way to the gulf, the ocean, and then the English Channel.

Nicastro and his mates arrived on the coast of Normandy, France, at a beach dubbed Omaha, on June 6, 1944.

D-Day.

They were met by lines of logs, metal hedgehogs and other mined anti-tank barriers, as well as German machine guns and artillery.

"The closer we got to the beach, there were dead bodies floating everywhere upside down," said Nicastro. "The bodies were just parting as the ship moved closer to shore."

Nicastro, a ship's cook, was manning a 20mm machine gun on his floating target, trying to provide cover for the soldiers storming the beaches.

"Shoot, I didn't want to kill nobody. The Germans were kids just like me. They were just doing what they were told to do just like I was."

Nicastro served on the 495 through 1944. The ship was decommissioned in 1946 and sold for scrapping in 1948.

"To me it was the best ship in the fleet," Nicastro said. "It brought me home."

Seven decades, nearly 26,000 days, have passed since Nicastro took part in D-Day, history's largest seaborne invasion, which included 11,000 planes, 50,000 vehicles and 150,000 Allied troops.

After the war, Nicastro met a girl at a post in Virginia. They were married in 1946 — but not before he removed one of his five tattoos.

"I told him that he wasn't going to hug me with an arm that said ‘Betty,'" said Ramona Nicastro.

Nicastro brought his new wife home to Memphis. He made a living by working in a body shop. They lived in the same house in Byhalia, Miss., for 45 years. They raised three children who gave them seven grandchildren and a dozen great-grandchildren.

D-Day, a turning point in World War II's European Theater, resulted in 10,000 Allied casualties, including 4,000 dead, German casualties were probably about the same. The Battle of Normandy also killed more than 20,000 French civilians.

Friday, President Obama, French President Francois Hollande, and other European leaders will gather near Omaha to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

Nicastro and seven other Memphis area D-Day vets will have front-row seats.

"Didn't want the front-row seats I had 70 years ago," said Jack Claiborne, 90, a seaman who was driving troops to shore at Omaha.

The Memphis vets also will join Michael Reagan, son of President Reagan, for the opening of a new exhibit at the Airborne Museum in Normandy.

Hight and several Memphis-area veterans met Michael Reagan when they visited Normandy a year ago. Reagan donated $25,000 to help fund this year's trip.

"Most of these men haven't been back to Normandy since D-Day," Hight said. "not physically anyway."

Monday morning, Nicastro, seven other D-day vets, and more than a dozen of their family members, boarded a Bellevue Baptist Church bus.

An armada of Harleys, mounted by police officers and veterans of more recent wars, escorted them to the airport, where they were met by a Navy band and a line of American flag-holding well-wishers.

"I didn't expect the escort," Nicastro said as he walked into the airport. "We had an escort on D-Day, too, but people were shooting at us that time."

This time, Nicastro is taking a commercial flight to France.

This time he's traveling with his wife, Ramona.

This time, the only equipment he's carrying that might qualify as a weapon is his walking cane.

"This trip will be much easier and a lot quieter," Nicastro said. "Thank God."

Forever Young will host a trip to Belgium Sept. 20-28 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. For more information visit ForeverYoungSeniorWish.org or contact Hight at (901) 299-7516.